"The Cut"-- Designers Rob Walker, Chris Cortez and Amy Salinger (with Tommy Hilfiger) prepare to embark on their first challenge in New York City, on THE CUT, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. Photo: David M. Russell/CBS �2005 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. NYTIMES; less

"The Cut"-- Designers Rob Walker, Chris Cortez and Amy Salinger (with Tommy Hilfiger) prepare to embark on their first challenge in New York City, on THE CUT, scheduled to air on the CBS Television Network. ... more

Photo: David M. Russell

Big choice of bras for the small bust

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Reality check: Chris Cortez, the San Francisco hat designer (www.wishchristopherthomas.com) who is one of the contestants on the new CBS' fashion reality show "The Cut," has turned out to be an intense, take-charge kind of guy. The director likes closing in on Cortez when he's scrunching up his eyebrows. A hard worker, Cortez has survived the first two episodes of the program, hosted by Tommy Hilfiger, one of the biggest brands in fashion.

In the second episode, Cortez led his team to victory after it spent 36 hours customizing a Lincoln Navigator for the rapper Fabolous. They won the challenge, but Cortez was dissed for his disorganized team. "Your team was a mess," Hilfiger told him.

The program's not doing so great, either. The show, which is based on "The Apprentice," is in far bigger trouble than Cortez. Ratings were dismal for the first two episodes, so CBS is moving the show from Thursdays to Wednesdays at 8 p.m. PST.

Maybe the bad ratings have something to do with Hilfiger's often brusque manner, not to mention competition from shows like "Project Runway" and "America's Top Model." For all The Donald's comb-over woes and show-off wealth, Trump comes off as more likeable.

Little people: The shop, like its owner and the merchandise, is small. Lula Lu, a new petite lingerie shop on San Mateo's Third Street, is one of the only places in the Bay Area to find a large stock of AA- and A-cup bras.

Owner Ellen Shing, 36 (who wears a 36A), stocks lingerie by name brands like Wacoal and Eberjey, and lesser-known brands such as French Kiss, in the 500-square-foot space. The walls are lilac, the furniture Indonesian and the light fixtures modern, for an airy, contemporary look.

"I didn't want to go the French boudoir look," Shing says. "Too many lingerie stores go down that path."

To help her stock her shelves, Shing turns to a group of small-busted friends who try on the bras for fit and comfort. "I have at least two people of similar size try on a style before I buy it for the shop," she says.

Small women like herself are used to leaving the lingerie department empty-handed, she says. "Our choices are usually so limited; mostly you can't find anything smaller than an A cup. Even for me, it took an enormous amount of energy to find bras in my size that fit well. Not fun."

Shing said some of her best-sellers so far are 34AAs and 36AAs, in part because large retailers have very limited styles in those sizes and she carries more than a dozen. She's constantly on the lookout for new merchandise, Shing says, and is thinking about adding even more unusual sizes like 38AA and 38A bras.

"Those are really hard to find. I'm a niche store right now, and I'm working on being a niche within a niche, to try and fit women who need a big band but a small cup, and those who are small in the back, but big busted. I'm searching for some nice 32 D bras."

Shing worked in marketing for duty-free shops for a time, but this is her first boutique. Like most boutique owners, she's shocked at how much work it is.

"I'm the owner, the janitor, the marketing person, the accountant, and I'm on the sales floor every day. I finally took my first day off in six weeks the other day."

The perfect fit? Finding the right jeans is always a struggle. Marrying technology and fashion, Levi's tested its new "Intellifit" jeans fit scanner recently at the Union Square flagship store, and I gave it a try. The results were mixed. After answering a few questions about fit preferences that were then typed into a computer; I stood inside the circular glass-enclosed booth, fully clothed, stretched my arms outward and in 10 seconds, a data sheet of suggested styles is spit out. The machine works by emitting harmless radio waves.

With one exception, the machine selected jeans that were too long, too low, or too distressed for me. I did end up buying a new pair of jeans in a style I already owned. Levi's reports that 60 percent of those scanned end up buying jeans.

The scanner got glitchy later in the day and spewed out lots of wrong sizes -- "The Intellifit folks are working to refine the calibrations," says Amy Gemellaro, Levi's spokesperson. The scanner may be a permanent fixture at the Union Square flagship store this fall.

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